Sideman Zachariah Hickman takes center stage at Passim

By Ed Symkus, Correspondent

Monday

Oct 8, 2018 at 4:27 PMOct 8, 2018 at 4:57 PM

Ask Zachariah Hickman a straightforward question, and you get an honest answer. The host of, performer in, and creator of the upcoming “Songs and Strings” shows at Club Passim on Oct. 9 and 10, is best known as a bass man – both double and electric – and often picks away on an acoustic guitar when accompanying his pal Josh Ritter on tour. Then there’s the business of a sousaphone taking up a lot of space in his Medford living room.

So, the question: “How many instruments do you play?”

The immediate answer: “I don’t know.” A brief pause, and then, “I play an awful lot of instruments in varying degrees of proficiency. Enough that I have an Excel document to keep track of how many instruments I have and where they are at this moment.”

The 39-year-old Lynchburg, Virginia, transplant fooled around with piano when he was very young, but when he entered the sixth grade, it was time to choose an instrument.

“I was an unusually large 12-year-old kid,” he said. “I was already 6 feet tall. I think someone in my class bet me that I wouldn’t play the tuba. But I did, and I showed an aptitude for it. Bass was a similar story. I was in seventh or eighth grade, and one of the cool kids told me that he was starting a band and I was the bass player. I said yes, then I had to go to the school library and look up what the bass was. I made it into the band, but I soon realized that the guy who started the band didn’t know how to play the guitar, so we didn’t last very long.”

Hickman switched from electric to double bass, moved from rock into jazz, which he studied at Oberlin, and kept changing things up.

“I was always playing different things at Oberlin,” he said. “I was studying jazz, but I got into bluegrass. I was in a Cajun dance band. I played salsa gigs and classical quartets. I’ve always tried to be versatile.”

Oberlin was also where he met Josh Ritter, with whom he’s been playing since 1999. After Ritter settled down in Boston, so did Hickman.

“I moved to Boston in 2001,” he said. “It was on a Tuesday in August, and on my first day in town, I went to the bluegrass jam session at the Cantab Lounge. The banjo player Chris Pandolfi, had also moved to town and was there. We sat in, and when we got offstage there were a few people waiting with business card in their hands. In my first month in Boston, I picked up enough gigs that I never had to get a day job. I’ve just been playing shows since I was 21.”

He’s usually an accompanist, a sideman, or an ensemble member in those shows, although he is the bass-playing founder of the hot bluegrass band Barnstar and music director for Ray Lamontagne. He’s been a regular performer at Club Passim, where he first appeared in duo format with Ritter, and has often appeared at the venue along with gaggles of other musicians that’s he’s assembled. “Songs and Strings” is an example of that sort of gig.

“One of my strengths is being a very organized, together musician, so gathering people like that has always been fun for me,” he said, then went on to explain what will be happening at those shows.

“The concept is two nights, all completely different material, five different singers each night. It will be a solo performer singing their own music, with brand new orchestrations that I have written for a string quintet made up of Mina Kim on cello, Annie Bartlett on viola, first violin Sasha Callahan, second violin Kate Goldstein, and me on double bass.”

The singer-songwriters on the first night are Dennis Brennan, Rose Cousins, Kris Delmhorst, Dietrich Strause, and Dave Godowsky. Night two will feature Lori McKenna, Elizabeth and the Catapult, Mark Erelli, Dinty Child, and Lauren Balthrop.

Another question to him: “Will you be doing any singing?”

Answer: “That remains to be seen.”

One more: “You have a framed poster for the 1971 cult rock ’n’ roll Western “Zachariah” on a wall in your living room. I don’t recall that being a very good film.”

“It is a terrible film. It is comically terrible, which makes it rather enjoyable. But the most important thing to remember about it is that there is a cameo by [former John Coltrane Quartet drummer] Elvin Jones. Three-quarters of the way through the movie, Elvin Jones comes out, playing a sheriff. He shoots someone in a gun duel, then he sits down and plays a 10-minuite improvised drum solo. It’s probably the single most awkward, bizarre piece of cinema I’ve ever seen.”

Zachariah Hickman hosts and plays bass at “Songs and Strings” at Club Passim in Cambridge on Oct. 9 and 10, at 8 p.m. both nights. Tickets: $30. Info: 617-492-7679.

Upcoming Concerts and Club Dates:

Oct. 6:

Guitarist Guy Van Duser and reedman Billy Novick team up again – as they’ve been doing for four decades – for an appearance at Amazing Things Arts Center in Framingham. (8 p.m.)

Singer-songwriter-pianist Marc Cohn (“Walking in Memphis”) comes to The Center for Arts in Natick. (8 p.m.)